Over at the nodpi foums, there's a discussion about some rumoured employment changes regarding Phorm in Korea (Trouble at Mill). Some of the emails contain Kent Ertegrul's contact details as they were at that time, and these have been looked at to see if the veracity of the Korean story could be checked.
One of the posters googled Ertegrul's phone number and found:
Zone Contact:
Apropos
Business Owner
26 Avenue Kleber
Paris, 75116
FR
Phone: +44 **** *** ***
Email: bizdev @peopleonpage.com
So, see this link about Apropos: http://www.f-secure.com/sw-desc/apropos.shtml , which includes this:
Apropos uses highly sophisticated stealth techniques to avoid detection.
The spyware collects the browsing habits of users and system information and sends it back to ContextPlus servers. Targeted pop-up advertisements are displayed while browsing the Web.
PeopleOnPage produces the Apropos family of spyware.
It uses the same ContextPlus engine as the public software POP!, made by PeopleOnPage. However, the Apropos branch uses a silent installer and rootkit techniques to hide itself from detection. When the client connects to the server, the name Apropos is used as the client name.
Also in relation, see this discussion item: Ace Zip Soft installs Rootkit + ContextPlus spyware, not detected/removed by Spybot
Those with a regulatory role in the governance of electronic communications or in data protection should take note of previous antics of those those behind Phorm, and ask themselves whether these people should be trusted with deep packet inspection technologies.
REMEMBER: Phorm's Webwise interecepts all internet communication (supposedly with some exceptions), regardless of whether or not the user is opted in or out. Opting out merely means adverts aren't delivered. Phorm's strategy of masking this invasive technology as an anti-phishing system is deceitful.